Roundup: U.S. stocks little changed amid weak retail sales

U.S. stocks shaved early gains to end narrowly mixed Wednesday as retail sales of the country came out disappointing.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 7.74 points, or 0.04 percent, to 18,060.49. The S&P 500 edged down 0.64 point, or 0.03 percent, to 2,098.48. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 5.50 points, or 0.11 percent, to 4,981.69.

U.S. Commerce Department announced Wednesday that the advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for April were 436.8 billion U.S. dollars, virtually unchanged from the previous month, missing market expectations.

"Year-over-year retail sales have been falling since the end of last year, and are now at the lowest point since October 2009. With wage growth hovering near its four-year average, consumer spending will likely disappoint for months to come," said Jay Morelock, an economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

Meanwhile, U.S. import prices declined 0.3 percent in April, after decreasing 0.2 percent in March and 0.4 percent in February, the U.S. Labor Department reported Wednesday.

Some analysts expected that the Federal Reserve would delay interest rate hikes this year due to sluggish economic growth.

The U.S. dollar hit a more than three-month low against a basket of major currencies on the expectation Wednesday.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1356 dollars from 1.1220 dollars in the previous session, while the greenback bought 119.13 Japanese yen, lower than 119.89 yen of the previous session.

Overseas, the seasonally-adjusted gross domestic product rose by 0.4 percent in both the eurozone and the European Union during the first quarter of 2015, compared to the previous quarter, according to flash estimates published by Eurostat Wednesday.

European equities mostly declined as the economic growth missed market consensus, with German benchmark DAX index at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange falling 1.05 percent.

In corporate news, before Wednesday's opening bell, Macy's reported earnings of 56 cents per diluted share for the first quarter of 2015, which ended on May 2, compared with earnings of 60 cents per diluted share in the first quarter of 2014, missing expectations. Its shares decreased 2.45 percent to 63.73 dollars apiece.

Ralph Lauren posted fourth quarter net revenue of 1.9 billion dollars. The fashion retailer's quarterly earnings per diluted share were 1.41 dollars, in line with the prior year excluding foreign currency impacts. Its shares dropped 3.02 percent to 129. 18 dollars apiece Wednesday.

Latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that the S&P 500 companies' blended earnings in the first quarter of 2015 are expected to increase 2.1 percent year on year, while the revenue is forecast to decrease 3 percent. A total of 457 companies in the S&P 500 have reported first-quarter results to date.

The CBOE Volatility Index, often referred to as Wall Street's fear gauge, fell 0.72 percent to end at 13.76 Wednesday.

In other markets, oil prices dropped Wednesday as U. S. crude production rose last week.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery lost 25 cents to settle at 60.5 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for June delivery moved down 5 cents to close at 66.81 dollars a barrel.

Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange soared Wednesday as a worse-than-expected U.S. retail sales report gave support to the precious metal.

The most active gold contract for June delivery jumped 25.8 dollars, or 2.16 percent, to settle at 1,218.20 dollars per ounce. Endite